Wanting to be a writer when she grows up is much like wanting to be a unicorn or a leprechan, so Karla Theilen didn’t talk about it. Instead she shares her other dream of wanting to be a nurse from another era, say, the Crimean War. These two dreams coalesce over time as Karla makes peace with how to be both writer and nurse. www.tellussomething.org

In 2002 Karla Theilen got a fortune cookie on an accidental road trip through Missoula that said, “Soon You Will be Sitting on Top of the World.” Weeks later she happened into a fire lookout job on an 8,000 ft peak in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. She has been sneaking in and out of the backdoor to Missoula ever since.

This edition of Tell Us Something was recorded on June 9th, 2015 at the Top Hat Lounge in Missoula, MT. The theme was “Oops! I Changed my Mind!”. Karla’s story is called “A Nurse and a Writer Walk Into a Bar…”.